It was a clean sweep for the Corvettes of TAM Auto Engineering and House of Portier at Yas Marina Circuit over the weekend, as the American muscles notched up a one-two finish overall in the UAE GT Championship.
Karim Al Azhari and Fabien Giroix managed to climb their way from the back of the grid in the UAE after a transponder issue left them without a decent recorded time in qualifying. Their misfortune left the Dodge Viper of NFS Racing’s Julian Griffin (below) on pole, with the Raed Hassan and Bassam Kronfli’s MSW Racing Ginetta in second.
Giroix made up a huge number of places in the early stages of the one-hour race and was running second when Griffin’s Viper broke down with a driveshaft failure after seven laps. The rest of the GTA class competition also suffered problems, with Kronfli suffering brake problems in the Ginetta (below, being prepped) before handing over to Hassan during the pitstop, who spun during his stint and dropped way down the order.
That left Al Azhari in the Corvette clear to record another win, ahead of Mohammed Al Mutawaa and Jiri Skula in TAM’s GTB class Corvette.
Third overall, and second in class GTB, was the MSW Porsche of Phil Quaife and John Simmonds, who climbed back up the field after a puncture.
Meanwhile, a delighted Saad Salman scored a first class win for Sayel Racing in their KTM X-Bow, holding off a concerted challenge from Robert Cregan’s Maserati.
Harris Irfan and Paul Denby in their Porsche clinched third in GTC after chasing down and overtaking the second KTM X-Bow of Athanasios Ladas and Alexander Margaritis.
Championship contender Joe Ghanem was forced to retire early in the race after a collision damaged the front left of his car. Other casualties included Khaled Al Mudhaf (below) in the G-Force Autoworx Ginetta, which had a coming together with the Maserati of David Field, and Cabell Fisher’s Khaleji Ferrari, which broke a wheel.
Of course, C&P was there snapping away, so enjoy a flavour of the weekend in our pic-tastic megapost.
The Brightest Car of the Weekend Award goes to Rafael Unzurrunzaga’s awesome Renault Megane.
The Moutran brothers’s Duel Racing SEAT Leon Supercopa.
Gulfsport’s trained monkeys didn’t say, see or do anything. Right?
G-Force Autoworx’s Ginetta – repping C&P.
Paul Denby contemplates the task at hand.
A handy guide to the weekend’s new track layout, which incorporated the corkscrew part of the North loop.
MSW’s Jon Simmonds, clearly surprised by something…
…perhaps it was the death stare of his team mate, Phil Quaife? Or perhaps not.
Lurking Ginetta.
The Renault Megane is famed for its derriere, but I bet the designers never envisaged a booty like this.
Bassam Kronfli didn’t have the greatest of luck in his Ginetta, thanks to brake issues.
Sayel Racing’s KTM X-Bow, awaiting its maiden victory…
…and here’s the man that delivered it – a very happy Saad Salman.
Duelling X-Bows.
Big yacht. Wonder if we can get a C&P sticker onto it?
Julian Griffin’s Viper in action. Sadly, not for long.
ARM’s Alex Renner refuses to be ruffled. Possibly because he has an intricate microphone setup on his headset.
The Khaleji Ferrari F430 in the pitlane. It was knocked out of the race when a collision damaged a wheel.
Maserati’s Rob Cregan prepares for battle. Despite losing out to Saad Salman, the Irishman still leads the GTC championship.
Tyres: useful. The Dunlop boys were on hand to ensure all the cars were shod.
It might be small, but the Lotus 2-Eleven was one of the loudest cars on track.
We also spotted this road-going version in the car park. Yum.
